SCOUTS’ BOOK OF HEROES: A Record of Scouts’ Work in the Great War

Robert Baden Powell’s Scout movement was in its springtime when the Great War broke out in 1914. Emerging from the pioneering first camp on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Scouting for boys soon spread like wildfire throughout the British Empire and by the time of the war, there were thousands of Scouts who flocked to join their country’s colours. This anthology presents a selection of heroic deeds performed by Scouts in the conflict in suitably admiring terms. In his foreword, Baden Powell himself stresses the self-sacrifice; self-discipline and social equality of the Scouts as the key factors in their heroism. The deeds recorded here range from the famous self-sacrifice of ‘Boy Jack Cornwell at Jutland – as act which won him a posthumous VC – to Piper David Laidlaw’s equally brave exploit when he walked along the trench parapet during the battle lf Loos playing the pipes to encourage his comrades. Laidlaw survived the action to win another celebrated VC. This is the perfect book for all former Boy Scouts – and for anyone interested in stirring deeds performed by brave men and boys in war. It also contains lengthy details of numerous awards, from MMs to VCs and the lives of leading Scouts killed in action during the Great War.